Anyone whose DD or DS had a disastrous Oxbridge interview....

[Supermanspants]

..... and managed to get an offer?
Hideous interview today. Grilled on a topic she hasn't even covered in her A level course and based purely on a 7 page academic article she only got half an hour before the interview.
She is so down about it all.

I think universities are oblig ex to give equal consideration to applicants regardless of when their application is received, so I don't think that can be true about Durham

Brioche no-one is ever going to penetrate the admissions process sufficiently to succeed in a legal challenge based on equal consideration. And they may be 'obliged' to give equal consideration but lets face it, no college is going to want to fill all their available slots for a single subject with students from a single, well known, fee-paying school known to be excellent at rearing Oxbridge students. And that's not simply because of the potential for poor PR on the access front but because diversity (in the broadest sense) is good in any subject and socially too, within the college. One college seems to have an unusually large number of Etonians this year, but generally even the mega name schools will have students scattered across the city, not concentrated. Ironically two of DD2's classmates applied to two different colleges for the same subject and were both then re-allocated before interview to the same one - but both got in. Generally though, I'd have thought it was a sensible policy, not especially arrogant and likely to help not hinder.

That reply wasn't about Durham but lots of universities give out offers before the January deadline. Durham is better in that respect than most, at least for humanities.

DS school also has this policy and has had for many years - completely pointless and I did complain, as a good friend of mine who has been admitting at an OxBr college said it is b*.

who has been admitting at an OxBr college for 30 years has several times admitted more than one person from the same school for his subject
pressed too soon

Sorry, 'ploy' was the only word I could think to use; I wasn't meaning to sound judgemental. Though I for one am glad ds comes from a small sixth form and was the only one in his year applying to Oxford in his subject. His choice of college was fairly random and he was reallocated anyway, but I don't think he would have liked to have the school make the choice for him, even though I can see why a larger school might want to.

The Durham question: I would love to hear from an insider on this one. It was obvious to us that if an application went in before 15th October and the predicted grades and school reference were good, the universities were going to guess that the applicant had applied to Oxbridge. In our case, that didn't stop 3 universities giving ds offers very quickly. Durham would be very odd if it automatically dismissed applications it felt were coming from Oxbridge candidates, not least because the vast majority are not going to get into Oxbridge. Surely Durham, alongside all other unis, would want to sweep up the unsuccessful candidates.

Durham couldn't survive as it is without picking up the best of those who've applied to Oxbridge but not got a place. Durham has always taken loads and loads and loads of Oxbridge rejects. It did even when it could see the names of the other universities on the UCCA form and it still does now. I'm no longer an insider :)

Ds's school chose the college for him. He was a bit clueless (and all I have to go on is hours spent Googling!) and didn't really mind. The school does adhere to the "no two candidates at the same college" rule. If you really dig into statistics you find that public schools/their ilk do dominate certain colleges so perhaps some students don't want to find themselves badly outnumbered nor do they want to prejudice their chances in an interview perhaps geared towards those who have been trained in the art of "jousting" since an early age. Ds was also keen to avoid colleges with sporty reputations or one that boasted of "jolly food fights". All seemed a bit Rock/Jack Willsy to him and potentially not a good fit for a comic book geek.

I would obviously treat all candidates equally. But I have to admit that, for the sake of diversity, I'm quite glad that schools don't tend to send multiple applicants for the same course to the same college.

Themodernuriahheep - the interview is Economics and Management, the other two blog entries pre- and post- interview aren't.

I think it highlights a problem we have at the moment. We have lots of information and 'flags' about widening participation, access etc but it is not clear whether these are highlighting the right students or what we should do with the information that we have.

Horsemadmom - I honestly believe that for most students, courses, and colleges the differences between the experience at different colleges will be relatively small.

Ds's school also advise to apply to different colleges for the same subject, I think much for the reasons Molio says above. Of course they can't tell them what to do, it's advice. And it might be rubbish but, from irregular's post , perhaps somewhat appreciated at times. DS and a friend chose the same college, same subject and the school told them to go and decide between themselves what to do. DS ended up flipping a coin with his mate.
Possibly a bit short term thinking, but I suspect it made the interview days easier for them not being in such direct, close quarters competition with each other.

Also, and I am certainly not in the know, but I would have thought that a university of the strength of Durham would be surprised if some of its applicants hadn't decided to have a shot at e.g. Oxford. But, speculation on my part.

Rhoda, that is hilarious. We didn't come across that sort of advertising when we went to look at the colleges. I so want people to start naming names of colleges when this sort of thing is mentioned.

Ds, in his naivety, is completely unfazed at the prospect of being with a load of public schoolers, and graded the colleges according to how pretty they looked and how well placed they were. (Well placed in relation to town, department, potential college of his best friend).

Honestly, I am so glad this is anonymous. Any admissions tutor reading this would be so unimpressed!

DD's school consults with Oxbridge candidates before the Open Days and suggests which colleges might suit them so that they can get the most out of their time and not run ,like headless chickens, from college to college. The school said they almost never have to tell students to change their choice.
My DD is keen to meet new people and would be really disappointed to end up surrounded by schoolmates.

Does anyone ever get an offer after an interview that contained lots of interesting discussion that the candidate enjoyed but didn't feel was "pushing and pushing?"

DS's school also advises against two applicants choosing the same course at the same college. I think otherwise it has the potential to be more competitive and stressful for the candidates. I am not sure if any did want to apply to the same college this year so suspect it is not often an issue. As to choosing which college to apply to, there are so many unknowns, in particular tutors and peer group in a particular year, that it can only be a preference and not a fully-informed choice.

I chose my college as the result of a magazine article which suggested that its occupants were cool and glamorous and had a lot of affairs with one another.

At my first interview the person from that college asked me why I wanted to go to university.

This was not something I had previously asked myself - or which anyone had ever asked me, so I said the first thing that came into my head ie.

'I don't know - better than going on the dole I suppose.'

As far as I can recall I was quite well-informed, and reasonably articulate about my chosen subject. They offered me a place at any rate.

Anyone? Really curious.

I did, but it was a long, long time ago. (Then I didn't get the grades, so went elsewhere.)

My son isn't here to ask at the moment, but he didn't seem unduly stressed by any of his interviews four years ago. He had two at the college he'd applied to and one at another college (I think it was just one additional interview). The first two were a mixed bag and the third one (at the other college) was a lot more straightforward, by his account. He got an offer from the second college, got in and absolutely loved it.

Having said that, he doesn't get all that stressed by exams and interviews. A great gift!

Yes Hully. I'd say that was more how I'd characterize the (better) interviews of the three of my DC who do history. The medic's interviews were all of the pushing and pushing variety and the law interviews were mixed between interesting discussion interview and pushing and pushing interviews.

thanks - interesting!

Molio, my son's interviews were for History. Maybe the History faculty is less abrasive than others?

Not judging by ds's interview !!

A lot of it must depend on the individual tutors too?

A possible "no two to the same college for the same subject" guidance may be common sense. One dad was telling us about his son's college choice for his sucessful application for something like engineering/NatSci. He knew who else was applying and to which colleges. He, not the school, deliberately chose not to apply to the same colleges as those he knew were very strong scientists/mathematicians. Plus do you really want to end up in the same place as those you went to school with?